Rehearsal Marks on Desired Staves

[lbuckley]

I’ve asked this before, and I’ve just searched the forum, but if it’s been answered, I can’t find it. I’m really sorry to be repeating what appears to be an often-asked question, but here goes, once again…

I’m a professional composer and conductor, and I switched to Dorico the day it came out. I write a lot, and I know the application pretty well, and I’ve updated it every single time a new version has come out. But I can’t solve this problem.

Wearing my conductor hat, I want to be able to choose which staves show rehearsal marks in standard orchestra, band, and brass band scores, but I can’t find a way to do that.

I know reh marks are system objects, and that those are only placed above instrument families (brasses, woodwinds, strings, etc.) That’s fine in an orchestra score — it places them fairly well spaced up and down the page — but in my brass band scores, having a system placement over “brasses” puts one rehearsal mark at the top of the score. Period.

Specifically, in my full brass band score, I want rehearsal marks to show on the top staff (soprano cornet) and over the 1st Trombone staff, in the middle of the score, so they are obvious at a glance, no matter what part of the score I"m looking at.

Is there a way to do that? I’d be eternally grateful to anyone who can tell me that it can be done, and how to do it.

Lew Buckley

[StevenJones01]

This might affect playback, but you should be able to achieve what you have described if you mark the 1st Trombone as Soloist (right-click the player in Setup mode), and in Layout Options > Staves and Systems enable Show system objects above first soloist. You might have to do some renaming of the player, too, and the bracketing of players in the score. Condensing might be affected as well, if you intend to use that.

[Christian_R]

Hi @lbuckley, I have a suggestion for your request, using a custom Instrument Family:

1. create a custom Instrument Family (from menu Library/Instrument Families…) and call it custom for Rehearsal Marks, leave it empty. Click on the star to make this available in all projects:

2. in Layout Options/Staves and Systems/System Objects check the custom for Rehearsal Marks family to show the System Objects:

3. in Setup mode (I used the Dorico Template for Brass Band), click on the 1st trombone and edit the Instrument Definition, and assign it to the created custom for Rehearsal Marks family, (and uncheck the Brass family!):

4. in Setup mode rename the “second” trombone instrument (whose name was now reverted to 1st Trombone) back to 2nd Trombone (edit also the short name!):

5. now the Rehearsal marks (and other System Objects) will appear also above the 1st Trombone, as desired :

And here the Dorico file example (that you can save as Template):
custom family for system object position.dorico (747.2 KB)

[lbuckley]

Wow — I’m seriously impressed. I wish it didn’t require such a complex workaround, but Dorico does everything else so very well that if this solves my problem, I’m willing to put up with it.

I’ll give it a try, and I’ll get back to you.

Thanks!

Lew Buckley

[lbuckley]

Thanks very much, Steven. That looks doable — I’ll give it a try!

Lew Buckley

[Christian_R]

@lbuckley

I wish it didn’t require such a complex workaround

Well it takes just 2 minutes to setup. And the custom family is always available to assign instruments to, after clicking on the star.

And, as I said, you can save this Project as Template (I gave you also the Dorico file )

And with this method Condensing and Playback work as expected.